1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shirt finishing machine, and, more particularly, a shirt finishing machine having a covered torso formed such that wrinkles can be removed by applying irons to a shirt disposed on the torso.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this type of prior art finishing machine, there is U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,030, in which the finishing machine is comprised of a torso to put on a shirt, a pair of front and rear press irons for pressing against a front side and a rear side of the torso for press finishing the shirt, and a pair of right and left supporting arms arranged at both sides of the torso. This type of prior art machine is made such that the upper segments of the supporting arms are normally provided with iron tables around which the sleeve end of the shirt is positioned and set, and the heating irons for press finishing the tuck and the cuff of the shirt.
However, it is desirable that this type of finishing machine enables not only a long-sleeve shirt but also a short-sleeve shirt to be finished.
Because, if the finishing machine is separately applied for each of the long-sleeve shirt and the short-sleeve shirt, its installing space is required to be wide, resulting in that its facility expenditure or some other expenditures for a user is required twice of a single machine and it may produce an inconvenience in operation.
Thus, in the event that this type of prior art finishing machine is formed as a finishing machine for a long-sleeve shirt and a short-sleeve shirt to be finished, it is a usual operation that an expansion bag is installed in the torso, the bag is expanded with hot air to cause the sleeve to be finished in tension.
However, in this type of prior art finishing machine, it was necessary to adjust a fastener at the extremity end of the expansion bag in response to either the long-sleeve shirt or the short-sleeve shirt. That is, in the case of the short-sleeve shirt, it was necessary to close the fastener to cause hot air to be enclosed in the expansion bag. In the case of the long-sleeve shirt, it was necessary to open the fastener in such a way that the hot air reaches up to the extremity end of the sleeve. Accordingly, utilization of this type of prior art finishing machine produced the problem that its operation was troublesome and its convenience in use was inappropriate.
In view of the aforesaid circumstances in the prior art, the present invention has been proposed.
Accordingly, a technical object of the present invention is to provide a shirt finishing machine of a type in which the sleeve is finished in tension not with the expansion bag but with hot air, wherein not only a long-sleeve shirt but also a short-sleeve shirt can be finished in tension easily by the shirt finishing machine.
Thus, it is desirable that the operating mechanism of the press irons in this type of finishing machine can be simplified in its structure, can be reduced in its size and saved in its spacing. If the operating mechanism is intricate and its size is big, the whole finishing machine of this type should be increased in it size and its cost.
Thus, this type of prior art operating mechanism was usually constructed such that the cylinder device was placed in a lateral direction, a rod extending or retracting direction was coincided with an advancing or retracting direction of the press irons, i.e. this prior art type finishing machine caused an occupied area for the operating mechanism to be increased, resulting in that a size of the device was easily increased.
The present invention has been provided a shirt finishing machine which can solve the aforesaid problems of the prior art.
Accordingly, it is another technical issue of the present invention to provide a shirt finishing machine of a type in which the operating mechanism for the press irons can be simplified, its size can be reduced, its space can be saved and the entire device can be decreased in its size, reduced in its space or its price can be reduced.
In addition, in the case of a cover put on the torso of this type of finishing machine and used there, glue used for finishing a shirt enters into a seam in a cloth and easily stains it with steam or hot air blown outwardly through the torso.
Accordingly, if a certain troublesome work is required for replacing this type of cover, it may produce a problem that the number of processing items to be washed is decreased because this type of finishing machine stops in its operation during this replacing work.
In view of the aforesaid point of view, the cover of the present invention has been provided.
Accordingly, it is a technical issue the present invention to provide a cover formed such that installation upon or removal from the torso can be performed easily and rapidly.
In a shirt finishing machine in which hot air is supplied into the sleeve of the shirt to finish it in tension, the upper segments of the supporting arms provided with the clamp devices for a short-sleeve shirt is formed to enable to turn for having the clamp devices arranged oppositely at side segments of the torso.
Thus, application of the present invention enables not only a long-sleeve shirt but also a short-sleeve shirt to be finished and further enables either an installing space or a cost to be reduced and decreased.
In this case, as shown in FIGS. 2-4, it is preferable in the present invention that the turning device is formed by an air cylinder arranged at the upper segment of the supporting arm, and the upper segment of the supporting arm is formed in such a way that it can be turned around its vertical axis provided along the supporting arm.
Because, with such an arrangement as above, since the turning device is of an air cylinder, an efficient control can be carried out under utilization of a pneumatic circuit together with the press irons.
Additionally, in this case, since the upper segment of the supporting arm is turned around the vertical axis, it is possible to arrange efficiently the clamp devices against either the iron table or the heating iron without any troubles and any surplus operating mechanism.
Further, the turning device may be produced under a combination of a motor and a gear or the like, for example. In addition, in the present invention the turning device may be stored in the supporting arm.
In addition, as the finishing machine of the present invention for accomplishing the second problem, there is provided the machine shown in FIGS. 5 to 10. The operating mechanism for use in pushing a pair of forward and rearward press irons against the torso in the present invention is formed by a cylinder device arranged to be raised with its rod being faced upward, and a converter member fixed to the upper end of the rod of the cylinder device to convert an expanding or retracting operation of the rod into an advancing or retracting operation of the press machine. In the present invention, the converter member is formed with an engaging segment curved substantially in an S-shape. In addition, a roller arranged with its axis being laid at each of the supporting legs for the press irons is engaged with the engaging segment. The present invention is constructed such that as the converter member ascends, the press irons are cased to advance and in turn as the converter descends, the press irons are cased to be retracted.
In the case of the present invention, it is possible to simplify the operating machine for the press irons, form it by a small number of component parts and reduce a cost of their assembling or a cost of their manufacturing. Additionally, in accordance with the present invention, it is possible to reduce a weight of the device, make a small-sized device and save a space for it as well.
In the case of the present invention, the engaging segment is formed into a slit-like shape.
Because, with such an arrangement as above, it is possible to prevent the supporting segment for the press irons from being removed and guide it under a stable state.
Further, as shown FIGS. 9 and 10, in the present invention, the engagement segment may be formed at the circumferential edge of the front side of the converter member.
Because, in this case, it is possible to perform an advancing or retracting operation of the press irons by a vertical motion of the engagement segment.
Further, as a cover of the present invention installed at and used with the torso of the finishing machine, there is provided a cover formed as shown in FIGS. 11 to 15.
That is, the present invention is constructed such that a front suspension and a rear suspension put on the torso to cover a front side and a rear side of the torso are formed into one sheet; a loincloth-like cover segment wound around the rear side of the torso and having both ends connected thereto is formed at both lower sides of the front suspension; both upper sides of the front suspension and the rear suspension are provided with strings for binding the front suspension and the rear suspension and fixing them to the torso; the front suspension, the rear suspension and the loincloth-like cover segment are bent back at their peripheral positions to form the tubular bags; fastening strings for use in fastening the front suspension, the rear suspension and the loincloth-like cover segment to the torso through once operation are passed through the tubular bags; and hard members for use in holding a shape of the cover are arranged at both side positions of the loincloth-like cover segment; and there are provided fastening strings for fixing the loincloth-like cover segment to the side surface of the torso.
Further, the cover of the present invention can be put on the torso or put off from the torso by fastening or releasing each of the strings. Accordingly, application of the cover to be simplified and made fast.